Ofun Nalbe

The story of Ofun Nalbe and Babalú Ayé

Ofun Nalbe lived with Babalu Aye in a cabin on the outskirts of the village, at the back of which lay the sea. Ofun Nalbe began drinking alcohol, and whenever he came home drunk he would lie down on Babalú Ayé’s mat and vomit. Babalú Ayé warned him about his bad behavior, but Ofun Nalbe paid no attention. One day Babalú Ayé grew tired of putting up with him, and one night when Ofun Nalbe arrived drunk and lay down on his mat, he waited for him to fall asleep, rolled him up in the mat, carried him out of the house and threw him into the sea. And so Ofun Nalbe drowned.

People are tired of enduring your lack of consideration and your abuses of trust, and they will catch you off guard and kill you. Ofun Nalbe stole Obatalá’s eyeru dundun, and Obatalá cursed him, saying: «you will always live sick in the stomach, and I will never again eat eyeru dundun.»

Ofun Nalbe the hunter

Ofun Nalbe was a hunter who went out every Sunday in search of game, but he was having a hard time and could catch nothing. For this reason he went to see Olofin, to plead and beg for his help. Olofin told him: «For that, you must bring me the following: 9 bottles of wine, 9 candles and 9 pesos for lorubo, so that you may find everything you desire.» Ofun Nalbe did as Olofin asked, and the following Sunday he went hunting. He climbed a great tree so that no animal would see him, and from there he watched three women approach in the form of angels. The first was Ayere yibo, the Virgin of Guadalupe; the second was Ayere Igui Odon, the Virgin of Carmen; and the third was Peregun Igui Oba, the Virgin of Charity.

The three women began to talk and to call one another by name, not knowing that Ofun Nalbe was listening to everything. Eyeriyibo said to the others: «Let us go to the beach to bathe when we finish gathering the fruit.» When their task was done, the three set off for the beach. Ofun Nalbe climbed down from the tree and started running fast. He reached the beach before they did. When they arrived, Ofun Nalbe said to them: «I wish to marry you.» They answered: «How are you going to marry us if you do not even know our names?» He said: «I know your names.» They said: «Go on, then — say our names.» He told them: «You are Ayere yibo, you are Oyorogiodon and you are Peregun Igui Oba.» Then they answered: «We will marry you,» and they went off to Ofun Nalbe’s house.

When they arrived at the house, his brother Obe came out to receive them, and on seeing the three women he had brought, he immediately asked: «How did you get them?» Ofun Nalbe replied: «That is my business.» Then Olofin, seeing such insolence and disrespect, said to the brother: «Bring me 9 bottles of wine, 9 candles and 9 pesos. With that you will obtain whatever you want — but your brother must not drink.» Obe got the drinks and made his brother Ofun Nalbe drunk. When Ofun Nalbe was completely drunk, his brother asked him: «Where did you get those women?» Ofun Nalbe answered: «Those women are 3 sticks from the bush.» The women, who were listening, left upon hearing this, and Ofun Nalbe lost everything in life through his drinking and his disobedience to Olofin.

Ayere yibo is the cypress, Ayere Igui Odon is the tamarind and Peregun Igui Oba is the peregun. They are trees of power by this Ifá.

Ofun Nalbe must not drink alcohol, for he loses his mind. This will bring him trouble with his women. Do not drink, so that you do not wreck your home and so that your own mouth does not cost you the fortune Olofin has granted you.

Why Ifá is not made for an omo Ikú

Shangó has a son named Ambobo Iode, to whom he passes on all his knowledge and secrets for being an obedient and virtuous son. One of Ambobo Iode’s talents is making Ozain, with fresh ewe as well as dry ewe.

Obaku Lode, son of Yampo Bolode, however, envied Yampo Bolode and his son, and wanted Ifá made for his own son, Ofo. He went to Elegbá to make the request, and Elegbá accepted. Then, together with Shangó, they prepared a bogdun with the help of 7 Eshus disguised as Babalawo.

During the ceremony, one of the Eshus sang a verse that greatly impressed Obaku Lode, who withdrew before the consecration was finished. But on returning to his land, he found that everyone was sick and dying. Elegbá explained that this was part of the Ifá process for Ofo, and that everything could be remedied.

When the 16 days of the ceremony had passed, Elegbá made an Ozain with fresh ewe to cleanse the whole world, and the epidemic disappeared. This story underscores the importance of respecting the rituals and processes of the Yoruba tradition in order to attain harmony and divine protection.

The hunter and the buffalo

Ode was a man who came upon a woman who turned into a buffalo before his eyes. The woman was in truth a kind of spirit that had taken the form of an animal and had hidden its hide in a cave. Ode stole the hide and told the woman she would have to marry him if she did not want him to reveal her secret.

Ode and the woman had children, but Ode’s first wife, who was jealous, began making his life impossible and asking where he had found that beautiful woman. Ode always gave her a different answer, but one day his younger brother got him drunk and asked him again about the woman. Ode, without realizing what he was doing, revealed the secret of the buffalo hide to his brother.

Ode’s first wife learned the secret and went to Ode’s house to confront the buffalo woman. After a fight, the buffalo woman found her hide and turned into a buffalo once more. In a fit of rage she killed Ode’s first wife with her horns, and then tried to kill Ode. In the end, however, she forgave him and asked him to take good care of her children and to make them always remember their mother.

The path cursed through inheritance

This is a story about Elegbara, a powerful man in the tribe of Itase, who was the senior oluwo Ozain and raised nothing but himself. One day Baba, a sick man, sent his daughter to Elegbara’s house so that he might examine him and prepare some remedy for his cure. When the daughter arrived, Elegbara asked her to go with him to the wilderness so that she herself could gather the eweses that Ozain had prescribed. Once in the wilderness, he gave her some vines to hold and told her to sing until he gave the word. Meanwhile, Elegbara was plotting a trap for Baba and his daughter.

After the daughter delivered the remedy to Baba, she asked leave to visit some friends in the nearby village, but in truth she went to the house of Elegbara, who was working a binding upon her. Some time later, Baba had a dream about the trap laid for his daughter, and he went to Orunmila for help. Orunmila performed Osorde for him and told him there was a trap involving his daughter, and that the one responsible was an Oluwo Ozain omo Elegbara. Then Orunmila prescribed an ebbo, and Baba performed it right there. When it was done, Baba cursed Elegbara, asking that if he should one day have daughters, the same thing be done to him that he had done to his own daughter.

In time Elegbara died, and his daughter married and had a son, upon whom Baba’s curse fell. Elegbara’s son married and left his faithful wife for another who betrayed him constantly. He also had many women who went to the houses of ozainistas for potions to keep him under their control, and he was always sick in the stomach. All of this was the result of Baba’s curse.

The night moth

Laba Laba Lorun, the butterfly of every color, lived with her siblings: Keshu, the black wasp, and Laba Laba Lorun nika eshishi, the black moth. Each lived life in her own way, but one day they decided to go see Orula to ask his help in living longer. Orula advised them to make ebbo, but only Laba Laba Lorun did, and she asked Olofin to be given something that would draw the world’s attention.

Olofin granted her many colors for her dress, and Laba Laba Lamilorun came to be known and admired by everyone. But Eshu sowed envy among the sisters, and Laba Laba Lorun nika eshishi began intruding on the land of her sister Keshu so that she could not find food. Keshu grew angry, and there was a quarrel that ended in tragedy when Laba Laba Lorun nika eshishi killed the wasp with a blow of her wing.

Laba Laba Lamilorun and Laba Laba Lorun nika eshishi went to Olofin to tell him what had happened, and Olofin ruled that they would only go out at night, since the wasp never went out at night. And that is how Laba Laba Nika Eshishi comes out at night, to warn man that Ikú (death) prowls by night through the sleep of his children.

One blows outward while touching the belly

Ofun Nalbe possessed a power granted by the eggun, and he believed in nothing but that power. One day, while traveling toward other lands, he arrived in the land of Baba with a terrible hunger and asked a herdsman for an eure dundun, but the man refused him, for those eures belonged to Baba.

Ofun Nalbe decided to steal the largest eure and hid until nightfall. What he did not know was that this very eure had been offered by Baba to Orula.

The next day, when Baba and the herdsman went to fetch the eure to give it to Orula, they found it had disappeared. The herdsman told them that Ofun Nalbe had been there the day before asking for an eure.

Baba decided to have an osorde done, and Orula told him to blow the Iyefa to discover the thief. The tracks that appeared belonged to Ofun Nalbe, and he was sent for.

When Ofun Nalbe arrived, he lied, saying he had taken a black eure and had never imagined it belonged to Baba, since he thought Baba shunned the color black.

Oshosis and the unicorn

A hunter in the wilderness saw a unicorn shedding its hide, and suddenly it turned into a very beautiful woman. When she went on her way, the hunter — who was Oshosi — hid her garments and courted her. She had to resist him, and continued on her way.

Oshosi let her go, but when she went back for her garments she could not find them, and she said to herself: «This can be no one’s doing but that hunter who courted me.» So she sought him out and accepted him.

They began living together, and from that union a son was born. Oshosi was a great womanizer and drank heavily, and these two things were his worst enemies. When he drank he became insufferable, he insulted people — in short, he was transformed completely.

One day, when Oshosi was drunk, he said to his women: «You see, this one I brought is not a person, but an animal.» On hearing this, his wife was mortified, and the two had a great quarrel. The scene repeated itself many times with the same result. His wife was already contemplating leaving him, for the fights between them had grown enormous.

Oshosi, for his part, went on drinking, fighting and pursuing other women, until one day he had to go out to the countryside with his wife and children. As it happened, she found her unicorn hide and put it on, and she went toward where the hunter and his son were, to kill him and so take her revenge.

The hunter told her that he had made ebó, named the items, and in passing recalled that Orunmila had told him not to drink or he would die — and it was this that held the unicorn back, and she decided to leave.

Then the hunter, recovering himself, asked her: «You are leaving?» She confirmed it. The hunter asked again: «And what do you leave your son?» And then the unicorn came back and handed over her horn.

That is why, when Oyá is seated, two horns are placed for her, and prayers are made for fortune and for the dead.

The ebbo is in the prayer.